Lady Jackets 3rd at state XC primer
Katon Lunsford Photo by Chris Simon
Kerri Lafferty feels her team can be better and the time to get better starts now.
The Kingfisher High School girls placed third in last Saturday’s Edmond Pre-State Cross Country Meet.
The race was held at Edmond Santa Fe High School, the site of this year’s state meet.
“I was very pleased with how we ran,” said Lafferty. “We were only four points from placing second even with a couple of our runners not at their best.”
Top-ranked Byng won the 4A girls team title with just 79 points.
Lincoln Christian, ranked fourth, was second with 109 and KHS scored 113 points.
The Lady Jackets are ranked fifth in the class.
No. 2 Cascia Hall and third-ranked Pauls Valley didn’t take part in the meet.
Liberty Starr led Kingfisher’s contingent as she was 11th overall out of 221 runners and 10th in score placing.
She ran the 3,200 meter track in 13:09.46.
Senior Katon Lunsford was two spots back of Starr and crossed the finish line in 13:12.49.
“Both girls really stepped up for us and dropped major times,” Lafferty said, noting both ran their best times of the year for that distance.
The race began at 2:30 p.m., making heat a factor for all runners.
Lafferty said she felt sophomore Chesni Newkirk and senior Jacee Mueggenborg felt the effects of that heat.
“But they still ran very close to their PRs,” said Lafferty.
Newkirk was 28th (26th) in 13:44.46 and Mueggenborg 34th (32nd) in 14:02.88.
Ally Stephenson was Kingfisher’s final runner that counted toward the team total as she finished 35th (33rd) and was less than a second behind Mueggenborg.
Sophomore Zaylynn Lopez was 56th and her time of 14:35 was a PR as well.
Lafferty expects the times - and, by extension, the placings - to start improving and soon.
“Our more difficult training will start this week,” she said. “Times should continue to get better throughout the remainder of the season.”
The cross country teams travel to Chisholm on Saturday and Watonga on Oct. 9.
The Class 4A boys race featured 283 runners.
Kingfisher senior Conner Hine placed 38th (37th) among them.
“I think that’s pretty impressive,” Lafferty said.
KHS was 21st in the team standings out of 25 total teams.
Hine ran the five-kilometer course in 18:42.85. Conner Askey was 124th and Coleman Gilles 131st in 21:09.56 and 21:14.29, respectively.
Both Hine and Gilles, members of last year’s team that qualified for state, ran faster times than they did last season.
“I’m extremely proud of these boys and their work ethic,” Lafferty said. Hennessey’s girls were
Hennessey’s girls were 11th out of 14 teams.Jamie Torres led the way as she ran 19th (14th) in a race of 129 competitors.
Taryn Jech was 27th (21st) overall.
The Hennessey boys didn’t have a full team, but Alonso Holguin was the top finisher at 72nd in the 3A boys competition.